Aaron Hernandez Associate Pleads Not Guilty

FALL RIVER, Mass. - — Ernest Wallace, charged in connection with the Aaron Hernandez murder case, pleaded not guilty Thursday to a charge of accessory after the fact in the June 17 shooting death of Odin Lloyd.

Wallace is being held on $500,000 and will have a bail hearing on Sept. 26.

Hernandez, the former New England Patriot from Bristol, is charged with first-degree murder in Lloyd's death.

Wallace, also a Bristol native, has been described by Assistant District Attorney William McCauley as Hernandez's "right-hand man."

McCauley has said the ex-NFL star provided "sole support" for Wallace, who in the weeks leading up to the shooting was driving the silver Nissan Altima used the night of Lloyd's death. Hernandez had rented the Altima, which he swapped the day after the shooting for a Chrysler 300 police found parked outside a Bristol apartment complex. Wallace, meanwhile, traveled down to his parents' house in Florida, where he turned himself in to law enforcement after police issued a wanted poster for his arrest, authorities have said.

McCauley has suggested Wallace is connected to a purchase of two .22 caliber handguns from a Florida gun store in April.

Police have since seized both firearms during two separate incidents involving Hernandez. One occurred outside a Providence nightclub in May. Hernandez, McCauley has said, was involved in that altercation. A witness told police he saw a "heavyset black male" tossing a gun into a car. That gun was not seized, but McCauley Friday indicated prosecutors believe the man was Wallace.

Investigators searching for the murder weapon used in the Lloyd homicide found the second .22 caliber gun on a street between Hernandez's North Attleborough, Mass., home and the park less than a mile away where Lloyd's bullet-ridden body was discovered. Prosecutors say Wallace can be seen on surveillance footage carrying a handgun the night of Lloyd's death – one of two handguns they saw on video from that night. They said they believe one of those guns was used in Lloyd's murder.

Wallace's fingerprints were also found on other ammunition prosecutors say was purchased in Florida and found during searches of Hernandez's home in North Attleborough where the burly man is said to have spent a great deal of time.